The obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is the term used to denote the respiratory standstill in one’s sleep caused by upper airway collapse, up to its complete obstruction (blockade). The absence of breathing process lasting over 10 seconds activates the respiratory center and sends signals for activation of the strongest respiratory muscle – the diaphragm. For some period of time conditioned by the initial tone and the diaphragm “performance efficiency” the convulsive breathing moves are occurring, yet without inhale proper. The muscular tone of the diaphragm further increases and at some certain point the sleeping person manages to take a pant. After several breathing acts the muscular tone drops again, thus leading to the repeated apnea cycle. In case the number of breath-holdings augments up to 10-15 per hour, this shall result in sleep pattern disturbance, the occurrence of diurnal drowsiness, augmented headaches, memory impairment and metabolic disorders.

The yoga-therapeutic approach to restoration of the tone of pharyngeal muscles and the diaphragm comes as a unique method of treating the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. This is the theme that me as a representative of the Ukrainian Institute of Yoga and Yoga-Therapy have turned into the subject of my workshop that was delivered at the research-to-practice conference “The Current Issues of Theoretical and Practical Somnology in Ukraine. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Non-invasive and Invasive Pulmonary Ventilation” held within a framework of the 23rd International Exhibition “Public Health Services 2014”.

Bhastrika. The Effects and Mechanisms of Health Improvement. Part 2. Bhastrika and Apparatus of External Respiration.

Bhastrika and apparatus of external respiration.

1. Bhastrika stabilizes the state of the bronchial tree smooth muscles.

The main function of the external respiration organs is the uninterrupted supply of oxygen and removal of carbon dioxide (the main product of metabolism in the human body). Here the respiratory part of the lung (alveoli) “is responsible for” O2 diffusion from the air into the blood of the pulmonary circuit vessels and back from there (CO2), while the upper airways (bronchi and bronchioles) – for bringing the air to the alveolar part.

The body’s needs for oxygen absorption and carbon dioxide elimination directly depend upon the rate of metabolic processes that in their turn are determined by specific features of one’s personal life (the situations one is involved in, the emotional states, the external weather conditions and so on).

And it turns out that since situations are constantly changing, one’s personal breathing pattern (the respiration depth, its frequency and rhythm) changes permanently as well.

All anatomic structures that form the apparatus of external breathing must have some certain degree of lability to enable timely adjustment of organism.

What is it that ensures lability in the scope of constantly changing conditions of external breathing – when one may quicken it or slow it down, thus forming the conditions for gas flow that from the point of physics are totally different from one another? (далее…)